TROUBLE IN THE HOLY LAND

One black American for Israel

Jesse Lee Peterson is the most courageous, outspoken critic of the "civil rights" establishment in America today. Raised without his father on a plantation near Tuskegee, Alabama, during the Jim Crow era, Peterson has lived a part of America's history few have experienced. After a spiritual transformation, Peterson founded BOND, a nationally recognized nonprofit organization dedicated to "Rebuilding the Family by Rebuilding the Man." Peterson is also the founder of The BOND Leadership Academy, a private school in Los Angeles. He's a radio talk-show host, speaker and author of "The Antidote." In addition to writing a weekly column for WND, Peterson appears as a media commentator on Fox News Channel, CNN and other national TV and radio networks. For more information, visit www.bondinfo.org.

The average black person in America today has no love for Israel. What a shame.

I grew up loving and respecting Israel. I was taught that Israel was our friend and that God gave the land to the Jews. If it were not for Judaism, there would be no Christianity. My parents, my grandparents and the average preacher taught this.

Not anymore.

I am grieved to see so many Americans and even our own government turning their backs on Israel.

Why are blacks so down on Israel? I believe it is due to the influence of their racist, anti-Semitic leaders – Jesse “Hymietown” Jackson, Al “Crown Heights” Sharpton and Louis “Gutter Religion” Farrakhan come to mind.

Whites have become much the same way due to the corrosive influence of the media, education system, culture and liberal preachers.

My nonprofit organization, BOND, visited Israel twice to show our love and respect – the spirit of the people and the spiritual presence over the land was unforgettable.

Our government needs to love and respect Israel, too.

We show disrespect when Obama dishonors Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by treating him with disdain – not our closest ally in the Middle East.

We show disrespect when the U.S. government attempts to dictate to Israel how it should protect its own citizens.

Israel has done all it can do to cooperate with its enemies. It has given them land in exchange for peace (which is more than God or I would do).

But it’s not really about land, is it? There are many Arab states in the Middle East, and just one Jewish state. Arabs and Palestinians don’t need any more land. The Middle East conflict is about killing Jews and eliminating Israel – period.

In 2005, Israel, bowing to international pressure, withdrew from the Gaza Strip. But the Palestinians quickly turned the place into a ghetto.

Since seizing control of the area in 2007, Hamas has launched countless rocket attacks on Israel. In June, after three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank were kidnapped and later found dead, Israel finally decided to take out the trash.

Hamas has spent a fortune on rockets and tunnels while their people live in squalor. It’s been reported that Israel has destroyed at least 32 sophisticated terror tunnels.

Israel protects Palestinians by warning them before it bombs targets where civilians may be. Yet Hamas tells its citizens not to listen to the Israelis – thereby setting its own people up to die!

Meanwhile Obama has been funding the Palestinian Arab unity government – effectively controlled by Hamas – thereby supporting the destruction of Israel.

One thing is clear: Israel needs to defend itself, whether America helps it or not.

Woe unto the nation that turns its back on Israel.

Winning the war

Hamas is a terrorist organization. There is no negotiating with them. They use cease-fires as a chance to regroup to kill some more Jews.

The object in war is to wipe out the enemy in the shortest possible time while losing the smallest number of your own soldiers and civilians. Netanyahu understands this, as his own brother, Yoni, was killed by terrorists during a rescue operation to release hostages. Yet Bibi is not immune from outside pressures.

After Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor, America fought back and gained control. But Japan’s fanatical leader refused to surrender, forcing President Truman (a patriotic Democrat) to make a hard decision – prevent the potential deaths of hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers in a ground invasion of Japan – by using atomic bombs to destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

History continues to debate Truman’s decision, but the principle was right: When you are attacked, choose the lives of your own citizens and allies over the lives of the enemy.

Israel needs to adopt a similar philosophy. It should never have given Gaza to the Palestinians. But now that it has and the Palestinians have proven unworthy of the land, it needs to take it back. That is the only humane solution for Israel’s people, who suffer day and night under the threat of missile attacks.

Israel needs to get out of the United Nations and ignore the U.N.’s insane support of terrorists. Once they stand alone, Israel will know that God is with them.

They can continue to ask for money and armaments from the U.S. – but Israel cannot rely on that support. This, too, will bring Israel closer to God.

I hope God forgives America for turning its back on Israel. I’m one black American who refuses to do that.